+1.
Even in the home market, you need something closer to half a pound in weight, for extended reading, and with current tech you can't get there at 10in.
At 8in you just might close enough.
If we look at the iPad mini's reviews, the biggest plus of the haardware is the weight.

I'm thinking they might have. Purely by accident.
The evidence isn't the iPad mini by itself but the Mini within the context of the evolution of the tablet market in the second half of 2012.

I'm thinking the Galaxy Note 8 bears watching.

Hard to believe anyone would try to credit Apple for the current state of the table market. It's kind of like giving Apple credit for establishing Intel as a platform for personal computing. Jobs himself dismissed the midsize tablets. Apple, Inc. dragged its feet as long as possible. The mini was a desperate attempt to slow the defections.

There's no magic in 8" -- it won't fit in my pocket and isn't good for reading magazines. It's just another size. Some will love it. Some will not.

Hard to believe anyone would try to credit Apple for the current state of the table market.

Saying they *accidentally* validated something is hardly crediting them for anything.
But the fact is that the popularity of both the bigger phones and smaller tablets is not being lost on the screen manufacturers; which is why Nook was able to get a 900P 7in screen that is not in general use anywhere else. A big change from the days when all tablets had to use either DVD-player or netbook screens.

With the Mini as a target, second and third tier vendors will likely leave the mobility market to the big phones (and the dirt-cheap generics--there's a bloodbath coming at 7inches) and instead focus on the 8in market as a more viable market than the 10inchers. The way the wind is blowing, by the second half of the year we'll see SXGA and UXGA screens in the 4x3 8inchers and 900P and FullHD in the 16x10 models, all at sub-Mini prices. (Say $200-250.) And, at the same time, lower weights.

Both variants will make for excellent home ebook readers and with the bubble of $99 WVGA 7inchers we can expect a lot more pressure on the eink devices. Which will likely have to respond by going lower in prices. (These things ripple out.)

Saying they *accidentally* validated something is hardly crediting them for anything.

Oh, well. Here...

Quote:

[In a fabled meeting between Jobs and Gates, Steve Jobs supposedly to Bill Gates], “You’re ripping us off! I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us!”

[To which Gates responded,] “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”

The mini tablet form was validated by Amazon's spectacular launch or the Fire which was followed by Google's popular Nexus. That form was established while Apple was still denying an iPad Mini.

The mini tablet form was validated by Amazon's spectacular launch or the Fire which was followed by Google's popular Nexus. That form was established while Apple was still denying an iPad Mini.

One thing Jobs (and Apple) learned from the Mac is that being first doesn't matter; what matters is who sells it to the mainstream.

Since then they have always waited for somebody else to "scout" a product category before coming in; Diamond and Creative Labs for MP3 players, Microsoft and Nokia for Smartphones, Microsoft again for tablets, Roku for streaming devices. (Well, 3 out of 4 ain't bad. )

So just because Amazon and Google have successful 7in products out there doesn't mean Apple can't waltz in and redefine the market for small tablets just as Samsung redefined the market for smartphones with the Galaxy note. And it is their track record of doing that that makes them the current trendsetter that everybody falls all over themselves to copy.

Dunno 'bout you, but Samsung has a reasonably successful 7incher in the Galaxy Tab, yet they are jumping to get out an 8incher for a reason. And the reason is Apple sold a ton of iPad minis.

Right now, Apple could jump off a cliff and half the tech companies in the world would jump right after them.

I know, but NO ONE except Apple was selling anything until the Fire arrived. Jobs said that 10" was the right size for a tablet and vowed to never make anything between the iPod and the iPad. Obviously, Amazon redefined the market when they SUCCESSFULLY introduced a tweener. If you want to quibble over the last inch, be my guest, but Apple played 'me too' in the tweener market.

Rumors have it that the new iPad will have a thinner bezel. They could shave off about 2 inches all around, so that would make the 10 inch device as portable as an 8 inch one.

I need my 10 screen, since I look at it all day long, and gladly lug around a few more grams for the viewing convenience. Anything smaller than 10 inches makes it instantly less productive for me, and a consumption only device, since I use handwriting apps at work, and surf/email/shop exclusively on my iPad.

They are also smaller.
An 8in 4x3 SXGA screen at 1280x1024 runs 200 dpi.
An UXGA (1600x1200) screen would run a clean 250 dpi.
Plenty good for a color reader.

Me, I'd take either if it came with an SD card slot and a price around $200.

Rumored specs unfortunately peg it at 189 ppi.

Quote:

The Galaxy Note 8 is supposedly going to arrive with 2GB of RAM on board, with the front camera pegged at 1.3 megapixels, and the rear at 5 megapixels. The display is supposed to be around 1280 x 800, which, while not mind-blowingly dense, still beats the iPad mini with 189 ppi vs. 163 ppi for Apple’s smaller tablet. A report from earlier this week suggest it will have a 1.6GHz quad core processor under the hood.